FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CREATIVITY - PAGE 4

For children to develop their creativity, they must have a feeling of acceptance among their peers and families, a Bucks County Community College instructor said during a workshop Saturday at the school. "As parents we need to create an environment of acceptance so these ideas are willingly put forward," explained Joyce S. Magliaro, who teaches reading and study skills at the college and also coaches a group of elementary students who participate in a problem-solving competition. Magliaro's workshop "Fostering Creativity in Children" was one of about 30 held during the eighth annual "A Day for All Women" which attracted more than 550 area women.

by DOROTHY GULBENKIAN BLANEY (A free-lance story for The Morning Call) | February 27, 2000

We're almost two months into the new year. Time enough to discover that the biggest challenge we face this year, like all the years that have gone before, is to be able to do things that haven't been done before. In other words, to be creative, to find new ways to address old problems, to say things that haven't been said, and to expand our minds. But how do we do it? It's easy if you're Shakespeare or Einstein, Mozart or Jefferson or any of the individuals whose genius has contributed to our civilization in a unique way. But what about the rest of us?

One by one, in an Allentown coffeehouse, they spoke of their addiction. They spoke of giving in to family threats, illegal and legal drugs, a paralyzing self-doubt. They spoke of attending 12-step programs that treated their symptoms but not their problem: rejecting the one thing that makes them live, their creativity. They spoke of finally finding a group that convinced them their creativity was a gift rather than a curse. They spoke of A.R.T.S. (Artists Recovering Through 12 Steps)

Remember the garage band you had in junior high, the gear you and your friends pulled together, the great sounds you created, bouncing ideas off one another? Now go back further to your dreams of building structures bigger than your house with Legos or Lincoln Logs or Erector Sets and your big sister joining you in creating the tallest tower you ever made. Or remember having a mountain of crayons and a huge blank sheet — no lines! — of paper, and you swirled and zigzagged all of your tiny tot energy and creativity onto the paper in purples, greens, silvers, yellows and oranges.

The children burst into giggles when they saw what their teacher, JoAnn Lane, held up. It was an umbrella without the cloth cover, just a bunch of spokes dangling from a handle. But Lane looked surprised at the children's laughter. Maybe this isn't an umbrella, she said. Maybe it's a model for a new ride at Dorney Park, she said, as the children's laughter settled down and they stared at her, open-mouthed. Here, hang seats from all the spokes and twirl the handle - wouldn't that make a wonderful ride?

Ever wonder how an artist decides what stays in a painting and what gets the brush? Tomorrow and Sunday at Myron Barnstone's 14th annual Open House Celebration at his studio (a former factory warehouse) in Coplay, three Barnstone students -- Syd McGinley, Judith Fritchman and Kevin Strauss -- will show and tell all. But first a few words from the teacher about "Deciphering the Secrets of Creativity." "There is no mystery about art," said Barnstone sitting at a table in his spacious studio sipping cranberry juice.

The materials could be found on any front curb on trash day: an old lawn chair, a couple of bicycle wheels, some piping and several feet of cardboard. Putting them together to make a traveling show wagon, however, takes some creative brain power. That's what Odyssey of the Mind is about: letting students use their natural creativity to solve problems using found items. They work in teams, without adult help. With the students gathered Saturday at Pennridge High School, there wasn't just a brainstorm, there was a hurricane.

What is art? What is music? Are these the kinds of questions that school board directors usually have to answer at an open public meeting? Well, apparently "yes" in the Quakertown community. Even though no answers were immediately demanded of or provided by the school board members who were asked the questions at a Jan. 6 board meeting, I carried them home with me and thought seriously about them. Here are my reflections. Art and music are not frivolous subjects in a school's curriculum.

Jon Courtney, 5, expresses his creativity, and maybe his thoughts about summer, as he draws sunshine pictures with colored charcoal on the sidewalk in front of his home on N. Ambler Street in Quakertown.

An article Wednesday about the Odyssey of the Mind creativity competition inaccurately described the challenge completed by a Lehigh University team. It competed against others to create an asymmetrical, balsa-and-glue tower that was wider at its top than at its base and which could support as much weight as possible.